Watch
Emotional design 0:32
A 32-second explainer of Emotional design, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Emotional design demo
What this video covers
Emotional (affective) design is designing for how a product makes people feel, not just whether it works. Don Norman's model describes three levels at which it operates: visceral (immediate gut reaction to look and feel), behavioural (the pleasure and confidence of using it well), and reflective (the meaning, identity and memory people attach to it afterwards).
The plain version did the job; the emotionally-designed one did the job and made you feel something - a warmer first impression, a more satisfying interaction, a moment worth remembering. That's emotional design across Norman's three levels: visceral, behavioural, reflective. It's not just surface polish - positive feeling makes a product feel more usable and earns forgiveness, so the emotion is part of the function.
